What took so long?
   Audiences and advertisers long ago showed they’re no longer terrified of gay people on TV. They embraced “Will & Grace,” cheered for gay contestants on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” and rooted for gay couples to win “The Amazing Race.”
   So, finally, Bravo decided it could aggressively court gay viewers without alienating straight ones.
   But just to be safe, they’ve carefully set out to lure straight viewers as well. Each of its two new gay-themed shows, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (which debuted earlier this month to record ratings for the network and is now repeating in condensed form on NBC) and “Boy Meets Boy” (premiering tonight at 9 p.m.), make straight men central to the proceedings.
   As the host of “Boy Meets Boy” puts it, these shows “bridge the gap between gay and straight.”
   In the case of “Queer Eye,” the presence of straight men is fairly straightforward: They’re the endless supply of clueless fashion victims.
   But with “Boy Meets Boy,” the straight men are there to keep the show from being just a gay version of “The Bachelor.” They’re the nasty twist, the Joe-Millionaire-is-really-dirt-poor hook that makes the show vastly more entertaining while throwing its arms open to straight viewers.
   The premise, if you haven’t heard by now, is this: James, a 32-year-old benefits administrator at a law firm — and, more to the point, a total hottie — must choose from a group of 15 suitors. 
   But unbeknownst to James or to the genuinely gay suitors, a few of the men are in fact straight guys pretending to be gay. (What’s in it for them? Money, of course. If James winds up picking a straight man at the end, the lucky guy will get a million bucks. James, on the other hand, will be humiliated on national TV.)
   Interestingly enough, the show’s creators have decided not to let the viewers know who’s gay and who’s straight, or even how many of each are in the mix. (We only find out the suitors’ sexual orientation after they’ve been kicked off.) 
   So rather than deriving our pleasure from, say, seeing whether the straight guys will make out with James in a hot tub, or whether poor James will wind up being duped, we’re left playing a guessing game.
   It’s a lot less prurient and, to be frank, less fun. The show tries to present itself as a noble experiment. This is, as host Dani Behr puts it, “a world in which gay is the norm and straight men must stay in the closet.” This pronouncement is accompanied by a scene of several of the suitors holding hands and skipping.
   To an extent, the show does force you to reexamine your own prejudices. As you test your gaydar, focusing on every behavioral tick and trying to decide what sexual orientation it signifies, you find yourself questioning and second-guessing stereotypes you never knew you had.
   But the fact remains that the premise is undeniably cruel and seedy. It’s the reason people will watch, and yet it’s not acknowledged by anyone involved.
   The primary reason people might not watch after the premiere: the shrill, almost impossibly grating host. Behr (of “Extra”) awkwardly interviews James and explains the rules, but she seems so desperate to be the center of attention that she might as well be licking the camera lens.
   And talk about examining your prejudices: She introduces James’ sidekick and advisor, Andra, by saying, “I have a feeling most gay men have a great girly best friend!”
   The series is due to last six episodes, and the most fascinating side plot, the one that can’t come up on straight dating shows, is whether any of the suitors — who all live together in Palm Springs — will wind up getting cozy with one another.
   That is, of course, if Bravo doesn’t edit that sort of stuff out to make room for mini-sermons. Tonight, after getting booted, one guy sums up the show’s spirit. It doesn’t matter whether you’re gay or straight, he says. “Love everyone for who they are.”
   It’s a nice message, but the sort of people who need to hear that lesson aren’t likely to be watching in the first place. “Boy Meets Boy” should concentrate a bit more on entertaining instead of enlightening.

July 29, 2003© 2003 Media Life

--Dan Jewel is a senior editor at Biography Magazine in New York and a frequent contributor to Media Life.

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